Bright Spots

Updated: Jan 29

The past few days have been gray – standard November winter-is-looming gray. But I’ve found so many bright spots, bits of color, and stark contrasts this week that I constantly find myself staring out the window or reaching for my camera. My office looks out at sky and trees (and the neighbor’s roof, which I ignore); I can see the neighborhood pigeons swooping and circling every morning.

Our backyard is always full of birds and other critters, although this year we haven’t seen the big buck that hunkered down beneath our spruce tree last fall. What we did get was a lone wild turkey, who flew up onto our deck, peered into our windows, then checked out the roosting potential of our white pines. She stayed for a night.

This turkey eyed us through our patio door.

Checking things out.

Deciding which branch to roost on.

We have bird feeders in the front of the house, where raucous flocks of hungry finches, cardinals, juncos, and sparrows have been hosting avian happy hours of late. And a couple of nuthatches have been hanging out upside down on the side of our bur oak.

Finches belly up to the rain gutter bar after visiting the feeder

Nuthatch

All this urban wildlife going about its business makes it impossible to let a gray day get me down.

My favorite study in contrast – crow on the roof.

One last bright spot from our neighborhood gas station, of all places:

No matter how dark November feels, it’s only truly dark when our eyes – or our minds – are shut.